Case Summaries – Page 115 – Electronic Discovery Law

Loop AI Labs Inc. v. Gatti, 2015 WL 1090180 (N.D.Cal. Mar. 12, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court denied plaintiff?s motion for temporary restraining order which requested restrictions on defendant?s assets, and orders prohibiting destruction of evidence, expediting discovery, allowing plaintiff access to defendant?s email and social media accounts, and for the return of a laptop because the court found plaintiff failed to demonstrate it was likely to suffer irreparable harm absent injunctive relief. In asserting it would suffer irreparable harm, plaintiff argued defendant had demonstrated she would not observe her obligation to preserve evidence, but provided no evidence in support of this claim. Stating that ?suspicions are not a proper ground for injunctive relief,? the Court noted that counsel for each defendant were ?expected to advise their clients of their duty to preserve potentially relevant evidence and the serious consequences for failing to do so,? but denied further relief.

Nature of Case: Misappropriation of Trade Secrets; Breach of Contract

Electronic Data Involved: Email, social media, laptop

L-3 Commcn?s Corp. v. Sparton Corp., 313 F.R.D. 661 (M.D. Fla. 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court addressed topic of key word searching and sustained in part and overruled in part Defendant?s objections to the Magistrate Judge?s order to run all searches proposed by the Plaintiff where certain terms were vague or duplicative; court laid out framework for resolving disputes regarding search terms deemed overly burdensome, including a requirement that the parties confer in good faith before coming to the court

Nature of Case: Claims alleging defect in m

Electronic Data Involved: ESI (search terms at issue)

Nuvasive, Inc. v. Madsen Med., Inc., No. 13cv2077 BTM(RBB), 2015 WL 4479147 (S.D. Cal. July 22, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: For Defendant?s failure to preserve its employees? text messages, court imposed an adverse inference.

Electronic Data Involved: Text messages

Junious Vital v. Nat?l Oilwell Varco, No. H-12-1357, 2015 WL 40417 (S.D. Tex. Nov. 30, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court sustained objection to award of costs for ?monthly expenses associated with maintaining a database of electronically stored information used to locate, retrieve, and store the plaintiffs? emails.?

Electronic Data Involved: Taxable costs

Bruno?s v. Bozzuto?s, No. 3:09-CV-00874, 2015 WL 1862990 (M.D. Pa. Apr. 23, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Where plaintiffs intentionally destroyed all paper and electronic copies of relevant financial information despite a duty to preserve citing the burden of storage, the court found that the destruction was in bad faith, but that the prejudice was minimal where other sources of evidence provided sufficient information to support Defendant?s defenses and thus ordered an adverse inference at trial; where one plaintiff was a Certified Public Accountant, court considered her professional capacity when considering the willfulness of the destruction, noting that it ?strains credulity? that an accountant would throw away all financial documents because of ?storage space?

Nature of Case: Breach of Contract

Electronic Data Involved: ESI (financial data)

LBI, Inc. v. Sparks, No. KNLCV126018984S, 2015 WL 6144112 (Conn. Super. Ct. Sept. 18, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Where Defendant sought to avoid production or allocate costs related to the production of allegedly inaccessible information based on the alleged cost and burdens related to processing and review but acknowledged that some of the ?raw data associated with the documents? was accessible, the court concluded that the affidavit from an attorney for the defendant?s counsel who had not ?attested to having a technical understanding of, or background in, electronically stored data? was not by itself ?enough evidence? to demonstrate that the at-issue ESI was not reasonably accessible and ordered defendant to submit additional evidence re: whether the information was stored in a ?readily usable format?

Nature of Case: Breach of contract, breach of duty of loyalty, misappropriation of trade secrets and tortious interference with a business relationship

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

A.M.castle & Co. v. Byrne, No. H-13-2960, 2015 WL 4756928 (S.D. Tex. Aug. 12, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Where Plaintiff sought ?physical access? to Defendant?s electronic devices based on the belief that Plaintiff failed to perform a thorough search, the court overruled objections to denial of the motion where Plaintiff failed to show that Defendant was in possession of any of Plaintiff?s company documents and where Defendant responded adequately to discovery, including hiring an outside party to perform forensic examination of the computers and utilizing hundreds of search terms proposed by the plaintiff

Nature of Case: Breach of employee confidentiality agreement, breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, tortious interference with contract, tortious interference with prospective economic advantage, and civil conspiracy

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Otsuka Pharm. Co., Ltd. v. Sandoz, Inc., No. 07-1000 (MLC), 2015 WL 5921049 (D.N.J. Oct. 9, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court allowed taxable costs for ?the scanning and conversion of documents into TIFF format? noting that the conversion was ?critical due to the complex nature of the case and the sheer volume of documents that were exchanged during discovery and trial? and citing Race Tires Am., Inc. v. Hoosier Racing Tire Corp., 674 F.3d 158, 160, 171 (3d Cir.2012)

Nature of Case: Consolidated claims under Hatch-Waxman Act

Electronic Data Involved: Taxable Costs

Shaw v. Experian Info. Sol., Inc., 2015 WL 1260552 (S.D. Cal. Mar. 18, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court granted Plaintiffs? motion to compel production of defendant database records. Defendant argued that the harm to third parties from disclosure of personal information contained in the requested data outweighed the relevance of the information to plaintiffs? claim, and that the preparation, review, and production presented an undue burden. Finding that the requested data was highly relevant to the class certification requirements, the court concluded plaintiffs? need significantly outweighed privacy concerns given the option of producing subject to protective order and Plaintiffs? agreement to accept data with personal information redacted. Nor was the court persuaded by defendant?s burden argument, finding the estimate and explanation from plaintiffs? database consultant ?more persuasive, appropriate, and accurate? than that provided by defendant – particularly in light of modifications Plaintiffs made to their request after defendant clarified how the data was stored in their systems. The court also noted that defendant?s briefing failed to allege any facts supporting its assertion that the information was more readily available from other sources.

Nature of Case: Class Action; Violation of Fair Credit Reporting Act

Electronic Data Involved: Database

Cableview Commc?ns of Jacksonville, Inc. v. Time Warner Cable Se., LLC, 3:13-cv-306-J-34JRK, 2015 WL 12838175 (M.D. Fla. May 4, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: The Court denied Plaintiff?s Motion to Compel Production of Documents. Plaintiff sought Defendant?s tax returns and document retention policies. Plaintiff entered into an agreement with Defendant in 2004 to provide cable television installation services. In 2010 Defendant tendered a workplace injury claim to Plaintiff for indemnification. Plaintiff?s insurance carrier denied coverage and the claim was left unpaid. In 2012, Plaintiff informed Defendant that it was being acquired by another company. One day before the closing of the transaction, Defendant contacted the acquiring company and made repayment for the workplace injury claim ?a condition to assent to assignment? of the agreement. Plaintiff alleged tortious interference and sought Defendant?s tax returns to demonstrate its ability to pay punitive damages. Plaintiff further alleged spoliation claiming there were missing emails and sought documents regarding Defendant?s document retention policies. The Court denied Plaintiff?s Motion holding that the request for punitive damages cannot form the basis for financial worth discovery since Plaintiff failed to make a reasonable showing of tortious interference. Further, there was no spoliation given that Defendant located and produced the emails in question and so Defendant?s document retention policies were not relevant.

Nature of Case: Workplace injury claim

Electronic Data Involved: Emails, ESI

Catagory:Case Summaries